Morning Bird
by SkyNinjaPirate
Summary: Gippal is hungover, and Rikku is in a mischievous mood this particular morning. Rated T for safety.


I actually wrote this a long time ago, but haven't gotten around to publish it until now. Don't know why though... Anyways, so this is my first FFX-2 fic, and with one of my fav pairings: Rippal! :D

Disclaimers – I don't own anything, obviously, Square does!

**Morning Bird**

It was early in the morning; the sun was just rising over the horizon and poked in through the curtains, which were supposed to cover the window, but weren't for some reason or another, allowing the sun to disturb him in his sleep. Gippal grunted and turned around while slowly opening his eye. He glanced at the clock at his bedside table and sighted, it was a little too early to get up just yet.

Besides his head was pounding, his mouth was dry and his stomach growled like an angry Coyote.

Laying completely still he could hear sounds of someone roaming around in the kitchen downstairs, and since he already was awake, he figured that going down there and get someone to make him breakfast wouldn't be too bad of an idea, and his growling stomach agreed.

So Gippal got up, pulled on a pair of pajamas pants, put on the eye-patch and started looking for his t-shirt, which he didn't find. It wasn't like he needed to cover up, so without offering the missing t-shirt a second thought he left the bedroom.

He sighted sleepily; yesterday had been late, and wild! He had thrown a party for all the workers and all his friends. To make a long story short: everyone had gotten a little too much alcohol and now he had an overly painful hangover, explaining the headache. He swore he would never drink again. Though he had promised that after the party last weekend too… and the one before that.

As Gippal walked down the stairs, half naked, he heard The Someone in the kitchen humming a melody they had been playing a lot last night. He grinned at the sound, it was familiar and he knew who to expect buzzing around making breakfast this early, which meant he would be getting his eggs and bacon without doing a thing this morning. She had always been the one to wake up first, no matter what, and she always ate said eggs and bacon the morning after drinking.

He had been right; when he poked his head to see what was going on in the kitchen he saw Rikku. Or the back of her head really, as she seemed to search for something in one of the floor leveled cupboards and the kitchen table was in the way for him to see all of her.

Gippal walked into the room with a grin and sat down by the table, making as much noise as possible as he did so. She didn't even look at him. Huffing out loud didn't make her look at him either, but as least she acknowledged his presence by waving a hand at him.

"Making breakfast, kiddo?" he asked, though meant more as a statement, as he lay his head down on the cold table surface and closed his eye halfway, enjoying the soothing feeling of the cold wood.

"No, looking for my Shoopuff… Of course I'm making breakfast, or at least I'm trying to." She answered with a little sarcasm, still searching the cupboard, still only the back of her head visible from where he sat. "But I can't find the damned frying pan! It's supposed to be in here somewhere!"

"I put it in the cupboard above the stove." Gippal said as he tried to hold back a yawn, which wasn't done with much success.

Rikku stood up straight and Gippal froze in his yawn, mouth hanging and eye snapped wide open at the sight. Rikku had her hair in a loose braid, which hung down over her right shoulder, random straws of hair loose from it and bangs in her face. But that wasn't really what caught his attention. She didn't have on the chocobo pajamas he knew she had brought; the one she always wore when she spent the night in his temple, the light blue chocobo pajamas she always would run around with in the morning. The only thing that covered her tiny, well-trained body was a rather large man's shirt, a white armless t-shirt which reached to just above the middle of her thighs.

Gippal simply couldn't look away. His brain was just as frozen as his face. This was Rikku, _his_ girl, in some other man's shirt? It just wasn't acceptable! Of course she wasn't his girl, but he hoped she would be someday, though he had never really made any attempts in making it so. Still he liked to think of her as _his_ girl, as he pretty much was the most constant man in her life. He knew of some of her boyfriends, who she quickly grew tired of and kicked out of her life as swiftly as they had gotten in. But she had never spent the night with any of them, had she? He thought her to be innocent as new-fallen snow, and now _this_?

But really, at the moment he couldn't do anything but stare and think in slow-motion.

Rikku didn't even look at him; just opened up the cupboard he had mentioned and stood on her toes looking for the frying pan. She finally saw it and stretched her hands up to get it.

At the table, Gippal snapped back to reality at the scene that was playing in front of him. As Rikku stretched, standing with her arms up in the air, he could see almost her whole side, including her breast, because of the wide arm holes. Only the nipple was hidden by the soft, white fabric.

He gulped, hard and obviously loud enough for her to hear, as she slowly turned towards him, still stretching for the frying pan. Rikku frowned at him and his weird expression, but it didn't take long for her to realize what he looked at, and she was barely able to suppress a grin as he quickly caught her eyes, blushed and looked away. And he, Gippal, _never_ blushed!

He was _so_ busted, and what if Cid found out? If the man was crazy enough to yell at men and boys who smiled at his little princess, what would he do to Gippal for staring at her half naked body? But even better, Gippal thought with an imagined grin, what would he do to the guy who owned the t-shirt Rikku currently was wearing?

His train of thoughts suddenly halted when the frying pan hit the table surface hard. Looking up at Rikku he realized that she still tried to hide the grin, and it made his blush even deeper. She made fun of him!

"What?" He halfway yelled at her. "Stop that stupid grin, what's the matter with you?"

Still, Rikku kept on grinning at him, sly, green, sparkling eyes watching him carefully, white teeth flashed at him, and a white man's shirt taunting him by sliding down her shoulder only to reveal more soft and slightly tanned skin. Skin which he died to kiss and caress, but for now it only tempted and mocked him.

"Gippal, answer me honestly: exactly what the hell's the matter with you?" Her lips went from grinning to being softly bitten between her white teeth, and her expression in general seemed more serious.

He squirmed under her gaze and wished he had stayed in bed just a little bit longer. But it was too late now, and Rikku knew him to well to let him get away with lies. "It's just that I think you should cover up more, you know…"

Rikku looked at him questionably and somewhat shocked.

Gippal decided it was best to continue before she mind-read him or whatever it was she normally was doing. "You walk around here where everyone can come in and … and …" He suddenly felt his anger rise. Not anger against her, but against this creep of a man who had stolen, violated, _his__girl_, at _his__party_, in _his__home_! "… In some guy's t-shirt! It's plain for everyone to see what you were doing last night, and… and…"

He wasn't able to finish, but if he had been, it would've been in the lines of: _'__you__don__'__t__want__anyone__to__think__of__you__as__a__fucking__whore,__or__what?__'_

The frying pan went smashing to the floor, almost crushing her small feet against the cold stone floor. This time it was Gippal's turn to look quizzically at Rikku, which by now had a twisted, somewhat insane look on her face. Gippal was somewhat worried she had read his facial expression, and thereby his mind and gone mental, but dared not ask, afraid she would scream at him, or have the t-shirt guy molest him. Or even worse, beat the crap out of him herself, cause he knew she was capable if she really wanted to.

Finally Rikku's face turned normal, if a sly grin and squinting eyes are normal for a blond, shorty at the age of eighteen. "How drunk were you last night?"

Gippal raised an eyebrow at her. "I barely remember a thing after we finished of the tequila during that psycho card game of yours. Why?"

"Just wondered, I mean, I knew you were drunk, but not _that_drunk."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"If you had remembered anything, you would've remembered that everyone went home about the time you went to your bed for the night." Rikku picked up the pan and placed it on the stove, turned the heat on, and while continuing finding the eggs from the overfilled fridge she said: "So, really, there's no one here to see me running around like 'this', except of you of course. Unless you mind?"

Gippal's brain froze again. So this guy, this creep of a man had left already? Had it been a one night thing? And Rikku was ok with that? But why did she still have the t-shirt? His mind felt like it was about to collapse, or explode, or something else which would be followed by his instant death.

"And the t-shirt … guy?" Gippal managed to stutter out to Rikku's back.

He could swear he heard Rikku laugh, but it was not loud enough for him to be a hundred percent sure, so he kept it to himself for now.

"He's amazing." Was the only thing which came from Rikku; this time loud enough for him to know she had said it.

Gippal felt like crying, smashing his head against a wall, jump of an airship, drown himself in a blitzball sphere, throwing himself into a flock of angry coeurs, or maybe just go to his room and sulk for hours.

But Rikku obviously didn't catch the way his face paled and his fists clenched and shook in anger, because she just continued. "Well, first off all it should be said that he's somewhat brain-dead, and obviously _half_ _blind_." This was said in a low voice, strangled with laughter. But then she spoke up. "He's simply just awesome, I mean, I knew he had a rep and all, but _damn_does _he_ know what he's doing!" The eggs were cracked and placed in the now warm frying pan. Bacon lay ready on the counter, waiting for its turn. "I've had my eyes on him for a long time, and I know that he's been having his on me, but he has never showed it, or caught up on the hints I've been practically throwing at him." She shook her head and more golden hair strayed from the loose braid.

"But last night, I mean wow…"

Gippal cut her short. "Shut up, will you?"

Rikku turned to him, an eyebrow raised high and her arms crossed. Gippal was too furious and depressed to notice the small grin, which had not left her since she had busted him in staring at her.

"Do you have any idea what this is doing to me?" He screamed now, sad and angry as never before, and for once he didn't care if she saw him loose it, or about his reputation. The only thing he could think about was the fact that she rubbed this in his face and that he had lost the one and only girl he had ever loved because he had been too afraid to lose her as a friend to do anything about the feelings he had always harbored for her. "You just stand there, and pretend as if I'm not here, or as if I'm not a guy you once used to love. It's as if I'm the same to you as Yuna is! And you know something Rikku; this hurts me more than you would ever know! 'Cause I still love you!"

Her grin was gone now, her soft mouth hanging open in shock and her eyes somewhat watery. He on the other hand let the tears stream freely, heaving for breath. Then he turned and stormed for his room. Later, he decided, he would blame it on the fact that he was hungover as hell.

But he never made it to his bedroom, because Rikku's arms got a hold around his well-trained chest before he was midway up the stairs. He tried to wriggle out of the grip, but the blond female refused to let go of him. So instead he sighted heavily, showing her he gave up and would not run away.

Rikku slowly let him go, but not completely, and went around him, facing the much taller man. One step up and she still had to look up to meet his eye, though he had it locked on something seemingly interesting on the stone tiles which decorated every inch of floor in the hall and stairs of the temple.

"Gippal," her voice was almost pleading, but still held some hints of humor in it. "Look at me, please?" Of course he didn't, and Rikku sighed while shaking her head slowly.

"Ok, ummm…" She really hadn't though him being completely serious, or him being completely stupid. Yes, he did only have one eye, but he wasn't blind on that, so that he had failed to recognize something was beyond her to understand. "I really didn't think you'd be that _brain-dead_."

This caused his head to snap up and his eye meeting hers. "What?"

The laughter was impossible to hold back, and Rikku squished Gippal closer. "Sweetie, do you recognize this t-shirt?"

"Should… I…?" Gippal's brain slowly started to work; it had surely not been working since he entered the kitchen earlier that morning, the missing t-shirt, the fact that everyone had left the temple… The things she had said about a rep, about being brain-dead, half blind, and with all the humor in her voice…

"Oh shit…!"

This time a full-fledged laughter was heard from Rikku, and though it would never be characterized as that of someone feminine, as it was loud, bold and raw, it was music to his ears.

"It's yours, stupid!" Rikku kissed his nose gently, before continuing after catching her breath. "The 't-shirt guy' you so gracefully pretended not to be jealous of is nobody else but you, silly."

Gippal couldn't do anything but stare at her, her beautiful eyes, hair, and mouth, somewhat sore after the night's action. It made him beyond happy to know that he had been the cause of it, though he hated the fact that he couldn't remember a thing of it. And as if Rikku could read his mind, she took a hold of his hand and gently pulled him upwards. "Should we refresh that memory of yours?"

Finally something stirred in Gippal's brain, though it was basically the small head doing the thinking, and reacting. He followed suite, obsessed with the thought of Rikku moaning his name and being … naked … The little head was definitely alive now. He was going to prove that her words of 'him being good' were so much more than just a rumor, since now he wouldn't be drunk beyond reason either.

He didn't have all the time he had hoped for though, because only minutes after the fire-alarm went off like crazy and the two lovers were forced to emerge from the room in haste.

Gippal looked at Rikku as she threw the flaming eggs and pan into the sink. He figured he really liked mornings, though he would have to change the fact that _his__girl_ was a morning bird, because morning birds obviously liked pulling pranks on those who were not. Of course he had a pretty good idea about what he could do change things…


End file.
